


Hope You Survive the Experience

by Molly_Hats



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Detective Comics (Comics), Robin (Comics), We Are Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angsty topic upbeat tone, Dead Robins, Fluff and Crack, Gallows Humor, Gen, Happy Ending, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 13:05:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14057583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molly_Hats/pseuds/Molly_Hats
Summary: “Yes, Duke will probably get killed at some point. No, we don’t need to open a betting pool on how or by whom!”“You guys what?” Duke asked, entering the room with an eyebrow raised. His gaze fell on the chart on the table, then cycled around to the guilty parties, only a couple of whom looked sufficiently ashamed. “You too, Cass?” He said, zeroing in on her guilty look.





	Hope You Survive the Experience

4 Months Ago

“Come on, guys, it’s not funny,” Tim pleaded.

From her seat on the couch beside him, Stephanie cackled. “Come on, Tim, dying is part of joining the family. Except for you. Cheater,” she said, punching him on the arm. 

He rubbed the spot and continued. “Yes, Duke will probably get killed at some point. No, we don’t need to open a betting pool on how or by whom!”

“You guys what?” Duke asked, entering the room with an eyebrow raised. His gaze fell on the chart on the table, then cycled around to the guilty parties, only a couple of whom looked sufficiently ashamed. “You too, Cass?” He said, zeroing in on her guilty look.

Cass shrugged and ducked her head. 

Duke grabbed the chart from the table and read through it quickly. “Joker...makes sense I guess. Bane not so much, dude hasn’t killed any of us, not even Bruce. Riddler...oh come on, only Jason actually bet on this one? Other...guess you’re going for the majority odds…” Duke looked up from the sheet and around at all of them. “I’m honestly ashamed of all of you. Zsasz isn’t even on here.”

“Shit!” Jason muttered, snapping his fingers. “Knew I forgot someone.”

Duke plopped himself down in the chair beside Cass, a bit of a smirk on his lips as he tossed the paper back onto the table. 

“As for how…well, there’s just too many ways to keep track of them all.”

 

3 ½ Months Ago

Duke’s eyes slowly opened, adjusting to the light. It was his room—still not really his. He still was not used to the feeling of having enough bed to kick his legs out in both directions, or the lack of Gotham’s unending noise pollution. He groaned and shifted on the bed.

“You awake, little bro?”

Duke’s mind dived back into utter confusion as he fished for who this could possibly be. Dick. Right, it was Dick, and he was in the mansion, and he was here because he got hurt (of freaking course).

“You have any questions, Duke?” 

Duke looked around. It was just him and Dick. He turned to the end table. Some flowers and cards lay on the table. He strained to read the words on the cards—one was a Get well soon in Cass’ shaky handwriting. “How long was I out?”

“About a day,” Dick said. “We weren’t sure where the drugs wore off and the sleep deprivation started, so we let you sleep.”

“Okay,” Duke said, contemplating. “Did we catch him?”

Dick nodded. “Pretty quickly, actually. Don’t tell Damian I told you this, but he was pretty mad. By the time the rest of us caught up, it was ugly.”

“Did he kill anyone?”

“No.” Dick shifted in his chair, his black hair catching the light in a halo effect. 

“Anything else?”

“So...I got hit, right? And then poisoned somehow…”

Dick nodded. 

“...So...like...do we measure injuries by what’s first or what’s the killing blow?”

Dick looked confused, although Duke couldn’t see him very well in the bright sunlight. “What are you talking about?”

“Because like Jason generally credits the crowbar but we didn’t have a system for rating this back then…”

Dick’s eyes widened, and he abruptly stood up, almost stomping over to the door. He flung open the carved mahogany to reveal a small group of anxiously waiting family. 

“He’s fine, guys,” Dick said, with a theatrical sigh. “He has some questions about how we define cause of death in the DRC and accompanying betting pool.”

There was a pause, then an unfamiliar laugh rise above the chatter, and Duke strained to lift up onto his elbows to see Jason leaning on the doorframe, a grin on his face. “You’re not in yet, Duke!”

“‘Course not,” Duke said. “My cackle isn’t good enough yet.”

“I do not cackle,” Damian pouted.

“The smirk kinda does it all,” Harper said affectionately, ruffling Damian’s hair and leaping out of the way behind Steph when Damian threatened her with his batarangs.

3 Months Ago

“I’m going to kill you, Thomas!”

Duke ran through the corridors, panting, Damian racing after him. Damian was a better combatant, but Duke might be able to outrun him if he sprinted like hell. He had a good foot of height on the kid, after all.

“Hey, lemme go!” 

Duke risked a glance back to see Jason of all people holding the kid by the scruff of his Robin costume. 

“Why are you—“

“If the demon brat kills you, this match goes to Stephanie, and I am NOT losing another bet to her.”

“Um, thanks?”

“Don’t mention it. Just don’t get killed unless it involves explosives and the Riddler, deal?”

“Uh. Deal?”

2 Months Ago

The funeral was well-attended, all of Duke’s old Robin friends and the Waynes. 

“He’d be crushed his parents couldn’t be here,” Claire murmured. 

Steph placed an arm around her shoulders. “B’ll bring them later.”

Today

“Okay, who did this?” Dick asked angrily, holding up the chart which now had a winner circled in bright yellow. “Come on guys, we don’t make jokes until they’re back and cracking them themselves, this is basic death etiquette…”

“Aww, Dick, come on…” Jason started to protest. 

“Jason!” Claire burst out, scandalized, before Dick had a chance to. “Just because you’re back doesn’t mean you get to treat everybody else’s grief like a joke! He’s gone!”

“Who’s gone?” 

Everyone’s breath hitched as Duke strode into the room, smirking. They all stood frozen for a second.

“Always wanted to do that,” Duke said in the sudden silence. He walked over to Dick and took the chart without any protests. “So it ended up being...Zsasz and blood loss. Told you guys you should’ve bet on him.”

“How are you—“

“I’m back,” Duke said, arms wide. “I get it now, this whole dead robins thing.” He laughed.

“Your cackle is still pathetic,” Jason commented.

Claire smacked him on the arm. Jason continued, unfazed.

“And you made me lose to Stephanie after I saved your life!”

“I wasn’t going to kill him, Todd, if I were trying he’d be dead—“

“—and you’d be dead!”

Duke sat down and sighed contentedly as the fight broke out, the insanity finally feeling like home. This was his family at last. He wasn’t the outsider, even in his own mind.

A replica vase crashed into the wall inches from his head, and he threw up his jacketed arm only just in time to keep the shards from hitting his face.

That said, being the outsider had some advantages. Like not getting hit as much or as often, or at least getting apologies when it happened. 

Claire sat down beside him. Her hair was a bit longer now, resembling Wally West’s in her mask. “I missed you,” she said.

“You too, GG,” Duke said. “Staying out of trouble?”

“‘Course not.” She leaned her head on his shoulder. “It was rough, Duke. Losing you so soon…”

Duke leaned his head on hers, pressing his lips into her hair for a moment. “I’m back. And I’m staying here as long as I can.”

“Good.”


End file.
